Tagged......you're IT!

Tagged and I didn't even realize for a couple of days. What a treat! My friend, In A Garden, has tagged me. I have seen the tagging going on and I wondered if I would ever get chosen. I hope this helps you to get to know me a little better. I have loved going to visit so many beautiful sites and I hope to get my blog up to speed with the bells and whistles soon.

What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was working in the same field, but close to home. I thought I'd be at that location until I retired, but found out God had other things for me. I was attending some writer's conferences and dabbling in some drawing. I was on-call 24/7 so plans were often scrambled. I was finishing up my degree after twenty five years of going to school off and on and changing majors until I was dizzy. I finally obtained a business degree. That's not where my heart is, but it served its purpose.

My five favorite snacks.
Dates with cream cheese
Popcorn
Cheese on crackers
Carrot cake
Dostios with melted cheese Cheese is a very good thing!

Five things on my to do list today:
Call my husband and daughter
Clean up the kitchen
Plan out what to wear to work tomorrow
Read
Send a thank you note.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Help with some very needy ministries
Put huge amounts in cancer research
Set up programs for inner city kids
Help some physicians I know with their mission trips
Build a community center to teach writing and art to all ages and backgrounds

Five jobs that I've had:
Library worker in high school
Waitress
Social worker
Technical manager

Five bad habits of mine:
If something is good, I usually think a lot is better. It isn't always better, just more.
Trying to do too many projects at once
Not delegating enough
Letting my car get dirty
Waiting until the last minute to do Christmas shopping

Five places I've lived:
Indianapolis, Indiana
Lake Worth, Florida
Germany
Augusta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia

Five random things people wouldn't know about me:

I'm usually very conservative, but married my husband after dating him for 6 weeks.
My husband is thirteen years my junior.
I was adopted.
I wrote a letter to Marilyn Monroe when I was a little girl and she wrote back to me. She absolutely fascinated me and I guess she still does.
I had an imaginary friend and dog until I went to kindergarten. Jimmy and Scruffy.

Five cds that I'd have to take on a desert island:
Andrea Bocelli
Chris Tomlin
Avalon
Natalie Grant
James Taylor

People that I want to get to know better.........You've been tagged

Sharon at TechnoNana, she's a kindred spirit

Paula at Your Sweet Eyes, we are like sisters

Dustye at Dustye's Kitchen, she's a new blogger I'd like to get to know better

Nicki at Three Girly Girls, she's a young mom with a heart for the Lord

Please come visit again. Life is worth the Living!

Feeling Blessed on Tuesday

The last few weeks have brought some changes in me. That's a big statement for someone of my age. I'm used to a lot of the same patterns and fortunately, not tons of big surprises. I feel like I have lived plenty of drama through the years. Thanks, but I'll pass on the drama. But these last few weeks have given me time to think about things I had been stuffing down for years. Some ways of thinking that have not been very productive. I've been forced to slow down and make some choices. It's not anything like relationships, or employment, or anything like that. It is about me slowing down my thinking and choosing to involve myself with things I really enjoy.

I don't know if it's taking the time to write out some thoughts or maybe going to my high school home that shook me up some. It was truly like being in a scene from Back to the Future. My little part of south Florida looked like another country at times. My beloved, Proctor's Seafood Restaurant, in West Palm, had gone out of business about 5 years ago. Things that had stood for fifty years or more...gone.

I must be naive to have thought it was not going to change that much since my last visit, but I guess I longed for something of my past. Not the whole life, just a few tasty meals, and some scenery that I had viewed in the 60's. Time doesn't freeze and I do feel the effects in my body. When my girlfriends and I walked those streets there was no hint of arthritis. I could read without glasses for hours on end. I was so active; I had no clue plus sizes would be in my future.

All that time brought me here. This is a place I feel God has me. I'm not the same person, but I want Him to use me to bring His beauty to others. I can't look back at what was without being so thankful for being brought through so much.

I guess I need to stay tuned for further reflections. I feel blessed.

Looking Back

Monday has been here and nearly gone. I can't believe we only have 2 more weeks of June. The summer was always such a fun time when I was a little girl. I could go get an ice cream from the ice cream man when we had some extra money. A quarter bought a nice big something special. I was a picky eater back then. I only ate a few things and ice cream made the list. I didn't realize at the time that life was so carefree. I guess I didn't have anything to compare it to. Catching lightning bugs and putting them in a jar with holes poked in it was a wonder. Summers meant my mother would be downstairs in the basement canning fruit and vegetables. I would sit on the stairs and watch her seal the jars with the rubber rings. She would always have her apron on and her printed house dresses would be wet from the process. My mother was always busy.

Mommy ironed sheets and looked for things to wash and iron. I look for things I don't have to iron. Her days were filled with cleaning and cooking. The fifties seemed so exciting at the time. There were cowboys all over the television and it seemed like new toys were coming out constantly. My daddy brought me a Davy Crocket hat home and I felt so important. I had a bright red hula hoop and I would entertain myself for hours with it.

There were no computer games or video games. I just looked for things to use my imagination with and I read a lot of books. I loved books that were about adventures in faraway places. I never dreamed I would ever get to travel to some of those places. I have been blessed and as I look back I am thankful I had parents that loved me.

I pray that my granddaughter will always have sweet memories and feel secure.

Thank you Daddy

I realize I'm a little late, but I wanted to talk about my Daddy as so many others have. He adopted me when he was 51 years old and I was a baby. He had two grown children with several grandchildren, but he knew I needed a home and he was willing to open his life up for me. He loved his grandchildren and called them 'the kids'. They probably don't have lots of memories of him, like myself, since he died so early. He was a bald, pudgy man the whole time I knew him, except the end. He was diagnosed with colon cancer when I was 9. He lived two years in and out of the hospital and became a bony shell of a man. He didn't question why he had become so sick. He just prayed for Jesus to take him. I have the memories of him crying out at night and I still can't deal with hearing a grown man cry. I wanted to help my Daddy, but prayer was the only thing I could do. My mother exhausted herself caring for him and having to make sure I was taken care of. I don't have lots of memories of my daddy not being sick, but I do remember him taking us fishing. I would read while they fished. He had a big laugh and for his last years of health he was an elevator operator. He was in a big office building in downtown Indianapolis. He drank coffee all day long and had multitudes of friends that rode his elevator. They would bring him Christmas gifts for me, as he talked of me often to them. I am thankful I had some sweet memories of my Daddy. I wish I hadn't lost him so early, but he is with the Lord and I am thankful daily that He placed me with such sweet loving parents. Those of you that still have your parents are blessed. I would love to hug my Daddy just one more time. I will some day.

Happy Saturday!

I hope everyone has had a terrific Saturday! I had a great day with Avery. We went to her practice for the Vacation Bible School program tomorrow at church and then she slid down the hill on plastic cover soaked in baby shampoo. Our church has a hill in the front and every year on the Saturday after VBS you will see a couple of hundred kids and some adults coming down the hill being sprayed on the way down. They love it. This has been a light fun day next to many I've had lately. I finished the book, The Shack, and I absolutely loved it. It gave me so much to think about and helped put some things in perspective for me. I think it's really a must-read concerning our personal relationship with God. It was well written and I highly recommend it.

I plan on writing about my Daddy tomorrow and I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Thanks to Blogland!

I am feeling so much better. Thanks for your prayers and I believe I am on the road back. I went back to the doctor yesterday and she put me on a different antibiotic thinking the first one was making more of an allergic reaction. She also gave me something to curtail the itching and help me sleep. I still burn, but I can deal with that. Enough of that. No one wants to hear about poison ivy 'gone wild' into a secondary infection.

This has brought me to a place to think about many things that I needed to be focusing on. What am I truly doing with my time? Not during work, I love my job and it is extremely rewarding. But what do I do with the hours I am not working and sleeping? Am I taking the time to do the things that I believe are needed for me? I know that God has a purpose for me and I, sometimes, run myself so ragged that I hurry through my quiet time with Him. I purchase things for convenience, and not necessarily because that is what I 'need'. Reading certain blogs that have been focusing on being more frugal have truly helped me.

I thank the people out in blogland that have never met me but bring joy to my day through their writings, pictures and music. This has been a God-given. Although I know I won't get to see all my blogland friends in person I want it to be known that they have given me so much.

I am returning to the doctor tomorrow and hopefully get back to work. This is a new day and I am blessed. There's much sadness in our country today. Deaths by weather, wars, rising fuel costs and drive-by shootings. God is still in control and for me...I think I needed to slow down and think about where I need to focus.

Not so easy to become more mature...

Just a word about my poison ivy. The doctor had another dr in the practice come in and examine me with her. I have an acute infection in addition to the poison ivy. I would not wish this on any living being. They put me on a broad spectrum antibiotic and steroids.

This is nothing compared to so many afflictions that people have, but when you are burning and itching and the sores are weeping, you start to wonder why this had to happen. I realize that as long as we are on this earth we will encounter pain and suffering. It's just that when it becomes prolonged it starts wearing on your nerves. God is in charge and I want Him to teach me what I need to learn.

I hope this doesn't sound like a woe is me blog. I read that multiple thousands have lost their homes with earthquakes and floods. Dear friends have cancer and brain tumors and I am not trying to say this is like their ailments I think it just is hard at times to understand James 1:2,3,4"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

I suppose that maybe I needed to rethink how mature I am. There are immature areas in my life and perhaps this is what has needed to be brought to my attention.

Please Lord, mold me and make me what you want me to be.